VacationSelector
The church of San Estanislao at Altos de Chavón, La Romana
La RomanaThe church of San Estanislao at Altos de Chavón
The coloured houses stepping down to the sea, Positano
PositanoThe coloured houses stepping down to the sea

Photos: La Romana by Edgar El, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Positano by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

La Romana or Positano?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose La Romana for

  • prices
  • families
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on La Romana’s own page.

Choose Positano for

  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Positano’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. La Romana 84, Positano 77: La Romana leads by 7 points.
Food & drink. La Romana 38, Positano 40: Positano leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. La Romana 24, Positano 22: La Romana leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. La Romana 30, Positano 22: La Romana leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. La Romana 62, Positano 80: Positano leads by 18 points.
Day trips. La Romana 52, Positano 88: Positano leads by 36 points.
Good for families. La Romana 56, Positano 28: La Romana leads by 28 points.
Getting around. La Romana 24, Positano 35: Positano leads by 11 points.
Shopping & style. La Romana 28, Positano 45: Positano leads by 17 points.
Affordability. La Romana 50, Positano 10: La Romana leads by 40 points.
Live music & performing arts. La Romana 17, Positano 15: La Romana leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. La Romana 44, Positano 45: Positano leads by 1 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: La Romana and Positano.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Too close to call, level with your weighting

La Romana
42match

Wins on prices and families with your weighting.

Positano
42match

Wins on day trips and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

La Romana in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
87 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Positano in July

29 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
La RomanaPositano

Where the figures come from

La Romana's temperatures are measured 65 km from the centre, at Punta Cana.

La Romana has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Positano's temperatures are measured 25 km from the centre, at Capri.

Positano has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Positano's sunshine is measured 59 km from the centre, at Grazzanise.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. La Romana: 1993-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Punta Cana (65.4 km from centre). Positano: 2005-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Capri (25.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLa RomanaPositano
Official languageSpanishItalian
CurrencyDominican Peso (DOP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-4UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation10 m142 m
Main airportCasa De Campo International Airport (LRM)7 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsNaples International Airport (NAP)33 km from centre131 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureLa RomanaPositano
City population139,2383,729
People per km²512429
Museums within 10 km010
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km05
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow La Romana or Positano somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.